Google Friends Newsletter - January 2010
Google Friends Newsletter
Enjoy this month's update on our products and services.
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POWER TIP
Flu Trends in 121 U.S. cities
We now have city-level flu trends for 121 U.S. cities in Google Flu
Trends — our most granular Flu Trends data to date. These estimates
are "experimental," meaning they haven't been validated against
official data. However, the estimates are made in a similar manner to
our U.S. national estimates, which have been validated.
www.google.org/flutrends/us/#cities
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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES
Introducing Nexus One
The Nexus One mobile phone powered by Android is now available. This
device combines the latest hardware from HTC, featuring dynamic noise
suppression and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset. It's also powered
by the latest Android software, which includes a voice-enabled
keyboard, Google Maps Navigation, fun Live Wallpapers and a 3D photo
gallery. With the launch of Nexus One, we also introduced a new way to
purchase a mobile phone — through the Google-hosted web store. You can
buy the Nexus One without service (meaning any GSM network SIM card
can be inserted into the device), or purchase the phone with service
from T-Mobile USA. More operators, including Verizon Wireless in the
U.S. and Vodafone in Europe, more devices, and more countries will be
added to the store in the future.
http://www.google.com/phone
Places near me now
Need to find a nearby restaurant, coffee shop or bar on the fly — or
maybe an ATM or bank? "Near me now" uses your phone's location
information to help you search for nearby places easier and faster.
With just a few taps you can check out customer reviews, jump to a map
to help you get there or call the business. To try it, go to
google.com using your Android or iPhone browser and click on "Near me
now". Note that you must first enable My Location by tapping the
location "update" link. This feature is available on google.com in the
U.S. for Android-powered devices (2.0.1+) and iPhone (3.x+).
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/01/finding-places-near-me-now-is-easier.html
Upload any file
You can now upload, store and share any file in Google Docs, giving
you one place where you can upload and access your key files online.
We support files up to 1GB in size. So instead of carrying a USB drive
or emailing a file to yourself, you can use Google Docs to access your
files on different computers. This can also help you work with teams
to organize and collaborate on information online, especially when
combined with shared folders.
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/upload-and-store-your-files-in-cloud.html
Supporting disaster relief in Haiti
Following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, we released a
globally available page with detailed post-earthquake satellite
imagery, opportunities to donate, other resources and avenues to help,
mapmaker data, and free voice calls to Haiti through Google Voice.
Using 20 percent time, Google engineers also developed the Person
Finder application for identifying and updating the status of missing
people, which can be embedded on other organizations' websites.
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
Google Favorite Places
Based on Google users' interaction with local business listings, we
identified more than 100,000 businesses in the U.S. as "Favorite
Places on Google". Each business is receiving a window decal with a
unique QR code that you scan with your phone to read reviews, star the
business as a favorite and more.
http://www.google.com/help/maps/favoriteplaces/gallery
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MISCELLANY
We just marked International Data Privacy Day, on January 28th. In
recognition of this day, we published our privacy principles, which
guide the decisions we make when we create new technologies. We've
always operated with these principles in mind, but have put them into
writing to help you better understand how we think about these issues
from a product perspective.
http://www.google.com/corporate/privacy_principles.html